A charming hedonist becomes an unlikely would-be assassin in “13 Minutes,” a respectful but labored biopic of a village carpenter whose 1939 plot to blow up the Führer was foiled by bad timing.

Though ruthlessly romanticized and swimming in Holocaust-drama clichés — like the pallidly venomous Nazi interrogator — the story of how Georg Elser (an endearing Christian Friedel) transformed from mischievous ladies’ man to determined bomb maker is worth the telling. And for a while, it’s even quite gripping as we watch Elser painstakingly plant his intricate device in a vast beer hall in Munich where Hitler is to speak.

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A preview of the film.Published OnJune 29, 2017CreditImage by Internet Video Archive

As directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, however, Elser’s capture and lengthy questioning by the Gestapo is a wasted opportunity to illuminate the mind of a man whom historical accounts variously describe as apolitical yet deeply concerned with workers’ rights. Bucolic flashbacks to lakeside picnics, where ripe young women vie for Elser’s floppy-haired attentions and accordion serenades, reveal little about his beliefs or ambitions. Neither does his awkward incursion into the dismal marriage of his lover (Katharina Schüttler) and her sozzled husband.

As it happens, the movie’s most compelling interaction is between Elser and a cautious police chief played by the admirable Burghart Klaussner, who achieves more with pursed lips and lowered eyelids than most actors manage with a page of dialogue. It’s a performance that leaves space for nuanced interpretation — something that the rest of this overly conventional picture sorely lacks.

With a little more shading and originality, “13 Minutes” might have pushed beyond its familiar Nazi tropes to shape something more immediate and infinitely more potent: an ominous portrait of radicalization.